At Southwest High, They Call This a Major Field Trip . . . : Prep Team Takes in World Cup

Diana Levya remembers dribbling a soccer ball across a bumpy, muddy field in Mexico City, pushing the ball between rushing defenders and eyeing an opening at the left corner of the goal.

“I thought to myself, ‘Here’s my chance,’ and I went for it,” said Levya, a Southwest High School soccer player.

The ball skimmed off the diving goalie’s fingertips, crashing into the left corner of the net.

Levya, who will be a senior next fall, has scored a lot of goals in her life but that one will stick in her mind forever, she said. It was the only goal Southwest managed in a 3-1 exhibition match loss June 24 to the Mexican women’s national soccer team at the National Training Center near Azteca Stadium, site of this year’s World Cup.

Southwest girls’ soccer Coach Ron Pietila said he tries to take his team on a trip each summer, and he couldn’t pass up the chance to travel to Mexico City with 16 of his players from last season’s Metro-South Bay champion team.

“That’s where the sport reaches the ultimate--in the World Cup,” Pietila said. “It’s just impossible to describe the feeling you get watching the World Cup.”

Through candy and cookie sales, the team raised $9,000 to cover the cost of the trip, according to Pietila, who said the girls raised enough money to each have $50 in spending money.

With many four-year colleges offering women’s soccer teams last year, Pietila said he has seen interest in the sport for women rise dramatically. He said the main reason he arranged the match in Mexico was to give his team the experience of international competition.

United States International University will offer women’s soccer for the first time next year with 11 scholarships planned for local athletes. Southwest goalie Michele Wilkes will attend USIU next fall on a soccer scholarship. She said the experience of playing against the Mexican team made her “think more because they were constantly on the attack.”

“There’s a big jump from high school to college,” she said. “In high school people are good but sometimes you have weak spots. But (the Mexican team) had nothing but good, quality players.”

Said Pietila: “They would have really humbled us if it weren’t for Michele. Without her playing goalie the score probably would have been 9-1 instead of 3-1.”

The women on the Mexican team ranged from 18 to “the late 20s,” Pietila said.

“Everyone (on the Mexican team) was so good at what they did,” Levya said. “They knew where to go on the field . . . they just knew what they were doing.

“It was a neat experience to play with such skilled players.”

The Southwest team, which had time for only two practices before the match, was affected by the thinner air in Mexico City, which has an altitude of 7,349 feet. Levya and some of the other girls tried to acclimate themselves to the high altitude by running up the stairs each day to the fourth-floor hotel rooms on the outskirts of Mexico City.

During the visit to Mexico City, the Southwest group also attended two World Cup quarterfinal matches and traveled around the city. Tickets for the matches ranged from $30 to $50, Pietila said, adding that the group was scattered throughout the stadium in groups of two or more.

Although most of the girls knew that the World Cup crowds would be enthusiastic, most said they underestimated the enormity of the event.

“(Azteca Stadium) was gigantic,” Wilkes said. “No matter where you sat, you could see the action. When we were going to our seats, we had to practically walk straight up and there were no rails . . . if you fell, you were gone. I expected it to be something like (San Diego) Jack Murphy Stadium, but it wasn’t.”

Ronne Pietila, the coach’s daughter had to sit out the exhibition match because of an illness. She said she was surprised to see how “rowdy” the international crowds got over soccer.

“The place was packed,” said Ronne Pietila, who will be a junior next fall. “People were sitting in the walkways . . . there were people everywhere.

“I have never seen so much enthusiasm over soccer.”

After England lost to Argentina, 2-1, the group from Southwest found itself in the middle of mayhem. The English fans poured out of the stadium screaming vulgarities, Pietila said. Some ran over to an area where the flag of Argentina was being rolled up and began stomping on it.

“I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t expect people to be fighting,” Wilkes said. “But it was no ordinary soccer game. It was the World Cup.”